The Happy Planner

I am in love with my new planner!!! A friend finally convinced me to get the Big Happy Planner by Me And My Big Ideas (MAMBI), and I am so glad she did! For me, the Happy Planner is the perfect mix of creativity/crafting and practicality. I had tried bullet journaling a bit last spring, but it lasted less than a month because I found it too hard to keep up with making all the monthly pages. Plus, most of the pages I was making were for things I was already tracking on my phone, so just coloring in the boxes was getting tedious. Having the premade structure of the planner, but enough blank space for decorating, is a great compromise!

The Big Happy Planner that I got comes with a monthly spread so you can see an overview of the whole month and weekly pages so you can plan each day in more detail. I have been decorating mostly with free printable sticker kits that I found online -- there are some really cute free printables out there (and searching for them quickly gets addictive)! So far I have just been printing on regular printer paper, cutting the boxes and shapes out, and using a glue stick to glue them in (I tried Elmer's regular glue at first and that wrinkles up the page, so it's no good). Here is my first full weekly spread #beforethepen (and where I got the decorative goodies from):

These beautiful boxes and checklists are from the adorable Shabby Chic free weekly kit by Pink Pixel Graphics. I find that I don't use even close to her entire kit for the week, so I only print the pieces that I need (LOVE that she provides .PNG files so you can cut and paste only the elements that you need so you don't waste ink!). I also love that she provides all sizes of the Happy Planner and Erin Condren planners.

I am using the bottom row of boxes for a daily gratitude journal where I write down 3 good things that happened or that I am grateful for each night before bed. The top two rows are a combination of decorations, to do lists, and appointment/meeting reminders.

Next steps on my planner adventure: I have ordered some blank sticker paper to make the free printables easier to use, MAMBI planner sticker value packs, and washi tape. I am also thinking of designing some of my own free weekly printable kits for the Big Happy Planner (lots of stuff out there is for the Classic size only, but I would love to see more for the Big). Stay tuned for how those go!